José Sócrates agrees 78bn EFSF programme; deal includes a softer deficit reduction trajectory;interest rate to be decided May 16; Sócrates claims he got a better deal than the Greeks and the Irish (which will no doubt lead to calls for a renegotiation of existing programmes); he also brags that there will be no additional pain in 2011; the troika forecasts a 2% contraction of the Portuguese economy this year; Jyrki Katainen is optimistic that he could gain a parliamentary mandate allowing him to support the Portuguese programme; Michael Noonan says Ireland is solvent due to current account surplus; Bank of Spain gives cautious outlook in its latest Financial Stability Report; Nicolas Sarkozy plans to focus his re-election campaign on fiscal rigour, as his advisers talk of a possible ratings downgrade; Wolfgang Schäuble's budget plan will be saved through much higher revenues from a booming economy; ECB fails to sterilise bond purchases yet again; Martin Wolf, meanwhile, argues that the eurozone faces a choice between permanent pro-cyclical adjustments, a break-up; or closer
union.